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Priceline.com has signed a definitive agreement for the Priceline Group to acquire Kayak in a stock and cash transaction.
Under the terms of the agreement, the transaction values Kayak at $1.8 billion - or $40 per share.
Priceline will pay approximately $500 million of the total in cash and $1.3 billion in equity and assumed stock options.
The boards of directors of the Priceline Group and Kayak have unanimously approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including a vote of Kayak’s shareholders and regulatory approvals.
The deal is expected to close by late first quarter 2013.
Kayak’s current management team will continue to manage operations independently as part of the Priceline Group of companies.
Kayak is a leading travel research site that allows people to easily compare hundreds of travel sites at once when searching for flights, hotels, and rental cars, and gives travellers choices on where to book.
The company processes over 100 million user queries each month through its global websites and best in class mobile applications.
“Kayak has built a strong brand in online travel research and their track record of profitable growth is demonstrative of their popularity with consumers and value to advertisers,” said Priceline Group president Jeffery Boyd.
“It also has world class technology and a tradition of innovation in building great user interfaces across multiple platforms and devices.
“We believe we can be helpful with plans to build a global online travel brand.”


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Google's new game-streaming service Stadia demonstrates the possibilities of gaming from the cloud, but experts say it's hindered by a lack of compelling video games and a convoluted pricing scheme.
Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games research at IHS Markit, called Tuesday's launch more of a public beta test than an actual debut. He said the real test will come next year, when Stadia begins to compete with new video game consoles due out from Sony and Microsoft.
"It is not at the moment a challenger to console companies or PC gaming," he said. "At this stage it is really about getting the product into market and into hands of consumers."
Google can learn from that and fine-tune the service as it grows and competition intensifies, he said.
Much like movies and music, the traditional video-game industry has been shifting from physical hardware and games to digital downloads and streaming. Such an approach lets gamers play from a variety of devices, picking up where they left off as they switch, without having to buy expensive equipment.
Tech companies such as Google are trying to establish a foothold early — even with some kinks — before streaming becomes as established in gaming as Netflix is in video and Spotify in music.
The benefits go beyond subscription revenue. While Stadia itself won't have ads. Google will try to tie Stadia with its other services, like YouTube and its digital assistant. Ultimately, as more people use Google services, the company can collect more data on user habits and show more ads targeted to those interests.
But these tech companies must compete with gaming stalwarts Sony and Microsoft, both of which have streaming ambitions of their own. Unlike Google, they also have decades of experience negotiating with game publishers and navigating the gaming industry.
Microsoft's $10-a-month Xbox Game Pass lets players download more than 100 games on the Xbox console at no additional cost. The company is also working on a streaming service, Project xCloud, though few details are available. Sony's PlayStation Now, also at $10 a month, or $60 a year, lets users stream or download games on its PlayStation 4 console or a personal computer.
Stadia, on the other hand, isn't meant for the console. But it requires a PC with Google's Chrome browser or a Google-made device — a Chromebook laptop, a Chromecast TV streaming device or a Pixel phone. It won't work with other phones using the company's Android operating system, or on iPhones, for now.
The service will eventually cost $10 a month, but it's currently available only to those who bought a $130 bundle that includes a three-month subscription. The service currently offers 22 games — most carrying a separate fee. For example, the adventure game "Red Dead Redemption 2" starts at $60.
Apple is also getting into the game-subscription business with Apple Arcade. The $5-a-month service lets users download a variety of games to play on iPhones and iPads. Games don't cost extra. Apple Arcade lets people download games to play offline, but Stadia does not.
Google is competing on this front, too, with a separate subscription called Google Play Pass. The $5-a-month service gives users access to about 350 games and apps on Android devices.
Video game streaming typically requires a strong connection and more computing power than simply streaming video, as there is real-time interaction between player and game. Google says it is tapping its massive data centers to power the system.
From a technological front, Stadia impresses, said Randy Nelson, head of mobile insights at analytic firm Sensor Tower.
But elsewhere, Stadia falls short. He said there is a disconnect between the hard-core gaming audience that Google appears to be targeting, and the few compelling games actually available.
"Gylt," a fantasy horror adventure game, is the service's only new exclusive title. Other games available at launch include "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," "Mortal Kombat," "Just Dance 2020" and "Destiny 2" — but all of these are available on other game platforms, too.
"It does seem to be a bit of a bare-bones launch to get this service out the door," Nelson said. "Hopefully Google will expand it over time."
Nelson said Google's approach is odd because it targets hard-core gamers who probably already have a console or PC, as well as many of the games on offer, rather than trying to reach more mainstream or casual users who don't want to invest a few hundred dollars in a console.
"There's certainly a missed opportunity here to position Stadia as a gateway to console-style gaming for casual and mobile players," Nelson said.
Also, consumers might be confused about pricing.
Google sold "Founder's Edition" bundles in advance, but is now offering a "Premiere Edition" bundle for the same price and benefits. Besides a three-month subscription, the bundle offers a Chromecast Ultra streaming device and a controller.
A stand-alone monthly subscription won't be available until 2020. A free version will also be available then. And while games are sold separately, the price depends on which level of service the gamer has.
"It all stacks up to being a bit of a confounding offering from Google," Nelson said. "They're likely to struggle a bit initially getting traction due to a bit of misunderstanding part of consumers about what it is offering."
Google hasn't disclosed subscription figures, nor have Microsoft and Apple. Sony said PlayStation Now has 1 million subscribers.
NASA is testing an underwater robotic explorer in Antarctica this month to look for life under the ice, according to a release of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Monday.
Developed by engineers at the JPL, the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration (BRUIE) could one day explore ice-covered lunar oceans like those on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, said the JPL.
The upcoming test of the rover's endurance at Australia's Casey research station is its first trial in Antarctica.
According to the JPL, there are moons throughout the solar system believed to be covered in deep oceans hidden beneath thick, frozen surfaces. Kevin Hand, JPL lead scientist on the BRUIE project, believes that these lunar oceans may be the best places to look for life in the solar system.
"The ice shells covering these distant oceans serve as a window into the oceans below, and the chemistry of the ice could help feed life within those oceans," Hand said.
The Antarctic waters are the closest Earth analog to the seas of an icy moon, which makes them an ideal testing ground for BRUIE technology, said the JPL.
The buoyant rover, one meter long and equipped with two wheels to roll along beneath the ice, can take images and collect data on the important region where water and ice meet.
"BRUIE will carry several science instruments to measure parameters related to life, such as dissolved oxygen, water salinity, pressure and temperature," said Dan Berisford, JPL mechanical engineer.
NASA is already at work constructing the Europa Clipper orbiter, which is scheduled to be launched in 2025 to study Europa, laying the groundwork for a future mission that could search for life beneath ice.
Amazon has considered adding facial recognition technology to its Ring doorbell cameras, according to a letter to a U.S. senator defending its video-sharing partnerships with police.
The company told Sen. Ed Markey that facial recognition is a "contemplated, but unreleased feature" of its home security cameras but that there are no plans to coordinate that feature with its law enforcement partnerships.
Markey wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in September raising privacy and civil liberty concerns about Ring's video-sharing agreements with police departments across the country. The company encourages police to tap into Ring's Neighbors app, a forum for residents to share videos of suspicious activity captured by their home security cameras.
The Massachusetts Democrat also expressed alarm that Ring may be pursuing face-scanning technology after a patent application showed the company is exploring a system that could flag certain people as suspicious and automatically alert police.
Markey released Amazon's responses Tuesday.
"If our customers want these features in Ring security cameras, we will only release these features with thoughtful design including privacy, security, and user control," Huseman wrote.
Markey's questions about facial recognition were part of broader concerns that some lawmakers and civil liberties advocates have about Ring and its police partnerships. Amazon sought to address those concerns in its letters to Markey, emphasizing that camera owners have a choice about whether to share videos. The company noted that police aren't allowed to seek recordings that are longer than 12 hours in duration or that cover a geographical area that is too specific or broad.
But Amazon also said it doesn't require law enforcement to delete a user's video footage after a certain period. Nor would it entertain Markey's request that it commit to never selling users' biometric information, saying only that it doesn't do so now.
Markey said Tuesday that Amazon is not doing enough to ensure that its products don't run afoul of civil liberties.
"Connected doorbells are well on their way to becoming a mainstay of American households, and the lack of privacy and civil rights protections for innocent residents is nothing short of chilling," he said in a statement.
"If you're an adult walking your dog or a child playing on the sidewalk, you shouldn't have to worry that Ring's products are amassing footage of you and that law enforcement may hold that footage indefinitely or share that footage with any third parties," he added.
More than 600 police departments have signed up to Ring's network since last year and many say it is becoming a useful crime-fighting tool. Among them is the police chief of Markey's hometown of Malden, Massachusetts. Chief Kevin Molis said he is Markey's neighbor and has known him since the 1970s but disagrees with him about Ring.
"We consider it a valuable tool for public safety," Molis said in an interview. "Is it a bad thing that private citizens, in order to make their streets safer, are investing their own money in a product that's allowing crimes to be solved and crimes to be prevented?"
But staff attorney Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU of Southern California said Amazon's responses to Markey raise grave privacy concerns. Amazon told Markey it has no way of knowing if its cameras are collecting personal data from children or positioned in such a way that they're intruding on a neighbor's privacy.
"Even if you don't sell data, or provide data to law enforcement, you're creating a mechanism whereby people can express latent biases and racism and classism in a portal that encourages it," Tajsar said.
NASA scientists have completed the first map showing the global geology of Saturn's largest moon Titan, according to a release of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Monday.
The map fully reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains, said the JPL.
"Titan is the only planetary body in the solar system other than Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface. But instead of water raining down from clouds and filling lakes and seas as on Earth, on Titan what rains down is methane and ethane ... that behave as liquids in Titan's frigid climate," it said.
"Titan has an active methane-based hydrologic cycle that has shaped a complex geologic landscape, making its surface one of most geologically diverse in the solar system," Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist at JPL and lead author of new research used to develop the map, was quoted as saying by the JPL.
"Despite the different materials, temperatures and gravity fields between Earth and Titan, many surface features are similar between the two worlds and can be interpreted as being products of the same geologic processes," she said.
According to the release, Lopes and her team worked with fellow planetary geologist David Williams of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe. Their findings, which include the relative age of Titan's geologic terrains, were recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"Lopes' team used data from NASA's Cassini mission, which operated between 2004 and 2017 and did more than 120 flybys of the Mercury-size moon. Specifically, they used data from Cassini's radar imager to penetrate Titan's opaque atmosphere of nitrogen and methane," said the JPL.
"In addition, the team used data from Cassini's visible and infrared instruments, which were able to capture some of Titan's larger geologic features through the methane haze," it said.
"This study is an example of using combined datasets and instruments," Lopes said.
"Although we did not have global coverage with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), we used data from other instruments and other modes from radar to correlate characteristics of the different terrain units so we could infer what the terrains are even in areas where we don't have SAR coverage," she said.
An Israeli communications satellite Amos 17 launched in August from Florida, U.S., has reached its orbital space point, Spacecom, the company that operates the satellite, announced on Monday.
According to the Israeli company, based in the central city of Ramat Gan, the satellite has successfully completed all necessary tests and will begin its commercial operations within days.
The 250-million-U.S. dollar satellite, manufactured by U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Company, is expected to provide communications services to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe over the next 15 years.
The satellite is specifically designed to provide solutions for rising media activity in Africa, and is replacing the Amos 5 satellite, which was lost in space in December 2015.
In 2016, Spacecom also lost Amos-6 after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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‘Game of Thrones’ confirms you’ll have to wait until 2019 for the last season
Every year starting with 2011 we’ve had a new season of Game of Thrones, and we all hoped that the final season will arrive in 2018, right on schedule.
Sadly, reports that said HBO might have to postpone the launch all the way to 2019 seem to be correct. It looks like there’s no way for HBO to launch season 8 next year, and the news comes from someone who’s very familiar with the schedule, given that she plays Sansa in HBO’s hit TV show.
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‘Game of Thrones’ confirms you’ll have to wait until 2019 for the last season originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 7 Dec 2017 at 15:24:38 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Next year, heat consumers will be able to access independent adjudication, more easily compare their energy bills and havethe peace of mind provided by consistent, national standards.
With energy minister Amber Rudd’s backing, the Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) is putting an independent heat customer protection initiative in place for district heating to lower heating bills and reduce carbon emissions for millions of UK households and businesses.
CHPA director Tim Rotheray said: “Heat networks are about putting local consumers first, and this scheme will help to strengthen this commitment.”
At the Heat 2014 conference, which took place on 5 November, Ms Rudd said the scheme was vital if households and businesses were to have access to low-carbon and affordable heat.
Speaking to more than 200 delegates at the UK’s only conference to focus on heating, Ms Rudd said: “We need to ensure a level of consumer protection consistent with that of electricity and gas customers.
“I recognise the considerable efforts of the CHPA in leading the development of an independent heat customer protection initiative. And I want to confirm the importance the government places on the success of this scheme, which is due to be launched early next year.”
She added: “Getting this right is vital to the growth of the heat network sector and vital for heat customers.”


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It’s hard to find two people who agree on the state of the restaurant industry. That’s not so much a matter of politics as it’s just a reality of split conditions. As the economy has improved in recent years, so has consumer sentiment. In turn, restaurant spending is up, checks are rising, and swaths of brands are enjoying positive sales growth after years of flat to negative runs.
However, when you dissect why this is happening, the picture isn’t so cut and dry. The improvement has come largely through a tightening labor market that has greatly reduced unemployment and pushed for higher wage growth. At 3.8 percent unemployment, it’s the toughest labor market in five decades. You would have to look back to December 1969 to find a comparable figure. And it’s been steady. The rate has tracked 4 percent or lower since March 2018.
In this bursting dynamic, restaurants face the reality that they can’t just cut an entry-level paycheck and expect to fully staff restaurants anymore. To attract employees and retain high performers, the value proposition must be compelling. If not, restaurants will lose quality employees to brands with more attractive workplaces. That includes other industries, fellow restaurants, and the pull of the gig economy, where employees, young generations especially, value flexible hours and multiple opportunities over the stability and security of full-time positions.
Industry insights platform TDn2K tackled this issue in a new report geared specifically at the restaurant general manager. More than any role perhaps, the GM is front-and-center in today’s staffing crisis. Beyond the operator-down challenge of keeping good leaders, these staff members feel the direct impact of every crack in your brand’s staffing armor. Not fully staffed? The GM will absorb that stress, and likely start dipping their toe in calmer waters. “Nowadays, they also need to worry about something as elemental as having enough people on the floor.” TDn2K said. “To do this, GMs are often the ones that step into other roles.”
Complicated operations and tech that doesn’t work (or no tech whatsoever)? GMs will be forced to spend too much time on administrative tasks and menial obligations, and not enough on leadership. And so the challenges begin.


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Market Basket rally draws thousands of workers
Thousands of loyal Market Basket employees and customers are at Stadium Plaza in Tewksbury this morning for the biggest rally yet since the firing of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
The location is the supermarket chain’s headquarters at the corner of a Tewksbury Market Basket parking lot at the Stadium Plaza Shopping Center.
Workers -- and, in many cases, their families -- brought homemade signs to show support of Arthur T. One read that the loyal employees are “not gonna give up the fight.”"
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In Suisun City: 812 Kellogg St.
Hours: Open Monday through Saturday (hours vary, depending on stylist’s schedules)
The Gallery is named so because it’s located in what was an art gallery. The hair salon’s popularity is reflected in the fact that each client is catered to, said Janet Kakacek, office manager. Hair color is a very popular service, as is color corrections. While each stylist has a niche, all are capable of providing services beyond that, Kakacek said. “The whole staff does everything well,” she said. “We have a great team here. Everyone helps each other out. They promote each other.” Continuing education is another key in the formula, as is customer service, Kakacek said.
Runners-up: Renegades Salon and Spa, Supercuts, Chadbourne and Co.


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Live Action Mulan: Success or Failure?
With Mulan having been out for a few weeks, many are wondering (whether you’ve seen the film or not) exactly how the film has faired with its premium cost of $29.99. According to a recent piece on The Motley Fool it looks like the decision to take the film straight to Disney’s streaming network has indeed paid off!
As the article tells us, Disney+ downloads increased by 68% over Labor Day weekend prior to the weekend before. That’s just slightly under the 74% jump that the streaming network experiences when Hamilton came out on July 4th weekend. In addition consumer spending went up 193% due to the fact that subscribers were charged a $29.99 fee to stream the film.
When compared with Tenet, it looks like Disney’s decision to bypass the theaters was a good one! Christopher Noland’s spy thrill for Warner Brothers brought in less than $30 million in the box office since it debuted on September 3rd.
So the next real question is whether Disney success with Mulan means that other films slated for release this year will bo straight to Disney+. Earlier this year CEO Bob Chapek referred to Mulan as a “one-off” but also said, “We find it very interesting to be able to take a new offering, our premier access offering, to consumers at that $29.99 price and learn from it and see what happens not only in terms of the uptake of the number of subscribers that we get on the platform but the actual number of transactions on the Disney+ platform that we get on that PVOD (premium video on demand) offering.”
The success of Mulan is too fold, not only in that the film was able to re-coup on production costs and make a profit during a pandemic but also in that it encouraged more people to subscribe to Disney’s streaming network. Chapek said, “All I’ll say about our research is that it shows that such an offering under a premier access offering not only gets us revenue from the original transaction from the PVOD but also acts as a fairly large stimulus to sign up for Disney+.”
As of going to print, it remains to be seen whether other films like Pixar’s upcoming Soul or Black Widow will go the Disney+ path or the theater path. This is a story that we’ll follow closely here at MickeyBlog so keep checking in with us for further news and updates!
Source: The Motley Fool
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Google selling smartphones againApril 25th, 2012 - 4:16 am ICT by IANS
San Francisco, April 25 (IANS) Google has begun selling Galaxy Nexus smartphones in its online Google Play store. The unbranded phone costs $399.
The device supports NFC (near field communication) technology and is pre-installed with Google Wallet, which let users to make purchases and redeem offers with a simple tap of their phone, Xinhua reported Tuesday.
It’s not Google’s first time to get in the smartphone sale business.
In 2010, the company failed to sell Nexus One, a specially-designed Android smartphone, directly to consumers. The store was closed only four months later.
Some industry watchers said Google may use the store to boost the introduction of much-anticipated Nexus tablet, a 7-inch device priced at $199.
- Ice cream sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus makes its debut - Oct 19, 2011
- Half a billion Android devices activated: Google - Sep 13, 2012
- Google launches unified digital content store - Mar 07, 2012
- US retailer launches tablet for kids - Sep 11, 2012
- Apple gets setback in patent war - Dec 10, 2011
- Intel-powered smartphone, tablet to enter market in 2012 - Dec 22, 2011
- Microsoft reaches patent deal with LG - Jan 13, 2012
- Google launches 'cloud' service - Apr 25, 2012
- Google hangs up on Nexus One store - May 15, 2010
- YouTube launches iPhone app with advertisements - Sep 12, 2012
- World's leading electronics fair opens in Berlin - Sep 04, 2011
- Your iPhone could be spying on you - Dec 20, 2010
- Apple awarded $1 bn in patent fight with Samsung - Aug 25, 2012
- Pitroda creation creates waves in mobile commerce market - Aug 06, 2011
- Samsung unveils Galaxy to challenge Apple's iPad - Sep 03, 2010


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Uniqlo expects price hikes ahead
12:35 JST, April 16, 2022
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Uniqlo may raise prices for some clothing items for autumn and winter this year and spring and summer next year, Tadashi Yanai, chief of its parent, Fast Retailing Co., indicated Thursday.
It is “impossible to maintain the current prices” if material costs rise 50%, Yanai told a news conference.
“Given the current economic situation in Japan, we can’t raise prices easily,” he stressed, noting that Uniqlo has so far raised prices for only a handful of items as consumers are price-conscious. He added that Uniqlo cannot grow without generating profits.
Fast Retailing said its consolidated net profit jumped 38.7% in the fiscal first half from a year before to ¥146.844 billion, a record high for the six-month period.
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Looks like the HTC Amaze 4G isn't the only T-Mobile handset being treated to an update today. T-Mobile has announced that a new software update is rolling out to the Samsung Galaxy S II, weighing in at 32.3MB and bumping the device up to version T989UVLDE. What's included, you ask? Inside is a handful of tweaks, such as Google security fixes and device stability improvements. Here's the changelog provided by T-Mobile:
T-Mobile notes that this update will be rolling out over the air until June 22nd. Owners of the T-Mo Galaxy S II that'd like to check and see if this update has made its way to their neck of the woods can do so by heading into Menu > Settings > Software Update on their device. As for Ice Cream Sandwich, Samsung has confirmed that Magenta's Galaxy S II will receive and update to Android 4.0, but so far we haven't been clued in as to when that update might be arriving. We'll pass along more details as we get them.


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Finland-headed gas major Gasum Oy has opened its first new vehicle gas refilling station in 2018 together with the IKEA retail store in Lommila, Espoo, Finland. The new filling station is part of the circular economy collaboration between Gasum and IKEA Finland and is the world’s first gas refuelling station opened in conjunction with an IKEA store.
The cooperation between Gasum and IKEA Finland, the Finnish arm of Sweden-headed global furniture retail major IKEA, will result in the production of biogas from food waste generated in all of IKEA restaurants in Finland. In addition, the cooperation aims to increase the distribution of environmentally vehicle gas to serve the needs of consumers and enterprises alike in conjunction with IKEA stores in Finland.
The gas refuelling station opened in Espoo is the world’s first gas filling station opened in conjunction with an IKEA store. The Finnish IKEA stores are the first IKEA units at which gas filling stations are introduced.
Our primary approach is to reduce food wastage at IKEA restaurants, but this enables the recovery of any minor amounts of food waste that are still generated. Cooperation with Gasum provides us with yet another way of creating a better everyday life in Finland, said Tiina Suvanto, Country Sustainability Manager at IKEA Finland.
Utilizing food waste from IKEA restaurants as feedstock in biogas production and the gas filling stations constructed in conjunction with IKEA stores are an example of the circular economy becoming part of consumers’ lives and opening up new opportunities for businesses for cleaner operations. The new gas filling stations enable the future use of environmentally friendly biomethane in IKEA Finland’s operations and to fuel IKEA buses and vehicles of IKEA’s transport partners and employees.
It’s excellent that the first IKEA store gas filling station is now open in Finland. This increases the opportunities to fill up on 100 percent clean Finnish biogas. At the same time, IKEA is able to utilize food waste from its restaurants in energy production and gets to increase the use of road fuel gas in its logistics, said Jukka Metsälä Vice-President for Biogas at Gasum.
Rapid growth in demand
In transport use, biomethane helps reduce the fuel’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85 percent. Therefore biomethane produced in Finland is seen as an easy and inexpensive way to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) and fine particulate matter (PM) emissions from transport.
The demand for biomethane as a road transportation fuel in Finland is growing rapidly. In 2017, the number of gas vehicles registered in Finland was around three times greater than the year before. Before 2017, there were fewer than 2 000 gas natural gas vehicles (NGVs) on Finland’s roads, while the current figure is already around 3 500 registrations.
The number of NGVs is increasing in all vehicle categories and the selection of gas vehicles available is increasing all the time. Volvo, Iveco and Scania have recently presented new gas-fueled truck models, and the new gas bus models have also attracted plenty of interest.
In addition, several companies have increased the number of gas-fueled vehicles in their distribution and waste logistics fleets. Finland’s best-selling car models are already available as gas versions, which is increasing consumer interest in the gas option.
Biogas is anticipated to play an important role in the transport energy solutions of the future. The State has promoted the transport use of biogas significantly through measures such as the energy key project support. Capacities for using gas as a vehicle fuel can be improved by increasing the production of gas and expanding the filling station network, said Kimmo Tiilikainen, Finland’s Minister of Agriculture and the Environment.
Currently, there are almost 40 gas filling stations in Finland, with 26 of these operated by Gasum. The company is planning to open a total of 35 new filling stations in the next few years, with seven of these already open. Currently, new gas filling stations are being planned for locations including the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Turku, Oulu, Lahti, Seinäjoki and Kuopio.


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The move follows the success of the brand’s vegan croissant launched earlier this year, which outsold its animal-based counterpart in the first few weeks of being on sale.
‘Veggie Pret’s Vegan Bakery’ will offer eight brand new items, including; three vegan croissants, two vegan brownies, and three vegan muffins, as well as two existing vegan bakery items, The Very Berry Croissant and the Dark Chocolate & Almond Butter Cookie.
Veggie Pret’s Vegan Bakery
The new options include The Vegan Plain Croissant (from £1.40), The Vegan Almond Croissant, and The Vegan Chocolate Croissant (both from £1.70).
The three muffin flavors are Vegan Banana and Walnut, Vegan Raspberry and Coconut, and Vegan Choca Mocha Muffin (all from £2.15).
Finally, the two brownies include The Ultimate Vegan Brownie and The Vegan Hazelnut and Caramel Brownie (all from £2.50).
In a statement sent to Plant Based News, Clare Clough, UK MD of Pret said: “We’re really proud to be the first high street food-to-go retailer to launch a unique concept like this. Expanding Veggie Pret’s offering for our vegan customers has been a huge focus of our food development over the last year and moving to an entire vegan bakery is very much the result of that.
“Our previous vegan bakery products, like the Dark Chocolate & Almond Butter Cookie and The Very Berry Croissant have always been big hits with customers – vegan and non-vegan alike.
“In the first few weeks of the Very Berry Croissant being on sale, it sold more than double the amount per day of the non-vegan jam croissant it replaced – so we can’t wait to hear what our customers think of these new treats!”
‘Veggie Pret’s Vegan Bakery’ will be available in shops and for delivery, via Pret Delivers, Deliveroo and new 3rd party delivery partners Just Eat and Uber Eats.
See more news here.


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Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish has warned that the company’s fourth quarter advertising revenue is now expected to come in “a bit below” the 2% decline in the third quarter.
“The current market is challenging and we’re in it every day and we see it. That challenge is both on the linear side and the digital side,” Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish told the UBS Global TMT Conference on Tuesday. “As we navigated leading into this point, we had looked for some improvement in some sectors, but we haven’t seen that.”
Despite the challenging environment, Bakish emphasized that the ad business is cyclical and “will turn” — and his conglomerate’s linear networks, from MTV to Nickelodeon, as well as ad-based streamer Pluto, stand to benefit when ad dollars improve. “I can’t tell you exactly when it will turn, but when it does, you’ll really see the power of the portfolio of assets we have,” he added.
In November, Bakish said that the company would be taking additional steps to improve efficiency at the company due to “ongoing macroeconomic pressures” in the industry and advertising market. On Tuesday, Bakish talked in detail about one of the company’s actions: a merger of Showtime’s streaming service and Paramount+.
“It doesn’t make sense to run Showtime as a 100% standalone organization. Certainly, the brand is valuable, certainly it stands for a certain type of programming with consumers and its going to continue to do that and we’ll lean into that. But we don’t have to do it as a standalone,” Bakish said. “We’re doing it as part of an integrated strategy and that’s both true on the traditional television side and on the streaming.”
He also teased that Q4 would be “the biggest in Paramount+ history” and signaled that the streamer will eventually join its competitors in raising prices.
“There is a benefit in the fact that we run a premium tier and an ad-supported tier, and you will probably see us raise price at different points in time so that we can catch any churn down, etc., should that be the case,” Bakish said. “Raise prices on premium first, and then follow up on the ad-supported side.”
Bakish concluded his talk at the investor conference by sharing his thoughts on consolidation in the streaming industry.
“It’s hard for me to bet on anything other than consolidation will happen in the future,” he said. “When it’ll happen, what the combination is, who’s on the top, who’s getting acquired? Who the hell knows? But consolidation will happen and streaming will be part of that.”
Shares of Paramount Global have fallen approximately 8% during Tuesday’s trading session and 44% year to date.


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It's been a long fruitful run for Apple, next week the company celebrates its 30th Birthday. But with Apple keen to promote itself as fresh and cool, will the wrinkles start to show as they...
First Look: LG V10
OnePlus X review: In striving for opulence, does it miss the mark?
Stay up-to-date with the latest software releases
Hands-on and first impressions of Microsoft's Lumia 950 flagship
As general release nears, what do you think of Windows 10 Mobile?
Robert M. "Bob" Metcalfe invented the local-area networking standard he called Ethernet on May 22, 1973, at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Ethernet originally meant a shared media LAN. It is greatly changed today,...


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NOV 24, 2015 | US
The Washington Post gets perspective from BSA President and CEO Victoria Espinel on encryption
Tech industry defends encryption amid new questions following Paris attacks
The Washington Post, November 25, 2015
On Tuesday, The Software Alliance (BSA) mounted a strong defense of encryption technology, saying it is a critical tool that protects users’ online privacy.
“That is not the case. Encryption — rather than something to be feared — is a valuable tool millions of people rely on every day to secure their online privacy,” the BSA said. “Government should not be pushing for solutions that would make the online environment less secure.”
BSA | The Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the leading advocate for the global software industry before governments and in the international marketplace. Its members are among the world’s most innovative companies, creating software solutions that help businesses of all sizes in every part of the economy to modernize and grow.
With headquarters in Washington, DC, and operations in more than 30 countries, BSA pioneers compliance programs that promote legal software use and advocates for public policies that foster technology innovation and drive growth in the digital economy.


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Some 100,000 cash advance users whom borrowed through the now-defunct money shop or Instaloans branches in Ontario can gather their share of a $10-million class-action settlement.
Ontarians whom took away pay day loans, or alleged personal lines of credit from either loan provider after Sept. 1, 2011 are now being expected to register claims to recuperate a number of the illegal charges and interest they certainly were charged.
The course action alleged that money Store Financial Services Inc., which operated a lot more than 500 outlets at its top, broke the payday advances Act by surpassing the cost that is maximum of allowed. In Ontario, payday loan providers aren’t permitted to charge a lot more than $21 for every single $100 lent.
вЂњCash Store had a propensity to create its enterprize model to make the most of ambiguity within the statute,вЂќ stated Jon Foreman, partner at Harrison Pensa LLP, which represented members that are class-action.
The business skirted rules maximum that is surrounding prices by tacking on extra costs for starting items like debit cards or bank reports, he stated.
Borrowers with authorized claims will likely be qualified to get at the least $50, many, including those that took away loans that are multiple could get more. The amounts that are final rely on what amount of claims are submitted.
The lawsuit had been filed in 2012 with respect to Timothy Yeoman. He borrowed $400 for nine times and ended up being charged $68.60 in charges and solution costs along with $78.72 in interest, bringing their total borrowing price to $147.32.
The Ontario government applied an amendment into the statutory legislation on Sept. 1, 2011 which was supposed to avoid any ambiguity in interpreting the 2008 pay day loans Act. The alteration included indicating what exactly is contained in the вЂњcost of borrowing.вЂќ
Following the amendment passed away, the money Store unveiled вЂњlines of creditвЂќ and stopped providing payday advances just like the province announced online payday loans Pennsylvania it planned to revoke its payday lending licence. The organization allowed that licence to expire, arguing that its products that are new beyond your legislation.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice sided with all the federal federal government in 2014 вЂ” saying the brand new personal lines of credit had been loans that are payday disguise. Without an online payday loan licence, the string had been not any longer permitted to make brand new loans, efficiently placing it away from company.
The organization and its own directors filed for bankruptcy security in 2014, complicating the course action. Foreman thinks borrowers may have gotten so much more if the ongoing business had remained solvent.
вЂњonce you have actually a business such as the money Store that literally declares insolvency once the litigation extends to an even more mature phase, it is an awful situation when it comes to instance,вЂќ he stated.
вЂњTo scrounge $10 million from the circumstances that people had had been a success by itself.вЂќ
Money Store Financial blamed its insolvency on increased federal federal government scrutiny and regulations that are changing the course action lawsuits and a dispute with loan providers whom infused it with all the money to lend away. The business additionally faced course actions related to overcharging in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec.
In court papers, it noted that Canada’s payday financing marketplace is well well worth significantly more than $2.5 billion and projected about 7 to 10 % of Canadians utilize payday advances. Its branches made 1.3 million loans in 2013.
Harrison Pensa is wanting making it as simple as possible for folks to register a claim, Foreman stated.
This has put up aвЂ” takebackyourcash that is website вЂ” for borrowers to fill out a simple type. Also those lacking loan documents can qualify considering that the lawsuit forced Cash shop at hand over its lending records.
Representatives may also be texting, e-mails and calling borrowers within the next couple weeks. The time scale to register ends Oct. 31.
Foreman thinks there are various other lenders available to you who could possibly be Ontario’s that is violating maximum of borrowing laws.
вЂњIt’s the west that is wild a business in many ways,вЂќ he said.
вЂњIf you think of the deal that’s taking place right here, it is a location that includes strong possibility of abuse.вЂќ


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New Delhi. Many ups and downs are being seen in the Indian stock market before the new year. Meanwhile, big news is coming out about 7NR, a big company in the stock market. The record date for 7NR Retail Limited Bonus is Monday i.e. today (28 November 2022). The company’s shares hit upper circuit of 5 percent on this special day. Let us tell you, whoever will be holding the shares of the company till the record date will be given a bonus in the ratio of 1:5. In the information given to the stock exchange, the company said, “The date of November 28, 2022 has been fixed by the Board of Directors. Any investor holding 5 shares of the company till the record date will get one bonus share. Whose face value will be only one rupee.
Let us tell you that according to the news sources of the stock market, bets can be placed on the IPO of this company from today. Although its shares have already been divided. Before this bonus, 1 share of the company has been divided into 10 parts. This small cap company is trading as X-Split in March 2022. At the same time, a rights issue has also been issued by the company. In August this year, the company’s shares were trading as X-Rights.
How has the company’s shares performed in the past?
During the last 1 month, the share prices of the company have seen a decline of up to 34 percent. On the other hand, someone who had placed a bet on the company 6 months back would have lost 43.55 percent of his investment money. Talking about the year 2022, the shares of 7NR Retail had seen a decline of up to 34 percent. The company’s shares hit a 52-week high of Rs 2.61. Then you also want to invest in this company in the stock market, then you must have understood the whole math here and can invest wisely.


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|Listen to Live Jamaican Radio, Listen to Power 106 FM 24x7. Click Here to Listen Free | (Advertisement)|
Government food price claims baffle Argentines
2013-01-17 15:40:59 | (0 Comments)
Six pesos a day. That's all it takes to eat in Argentina, at least according to the government.
But on the streets of the capital, 6 pesos doesn't stretch beyond a pack of chewing gum, or a cup of yoghurt, or a single "alfajor" — the country's traditional caramel-and-chocolate cookies.
They're tasty, but hardly provide what the government calls the "minimum calories and proteins needed to sustain a moderately active adult."
As the International Monetary Fund moved closer today to sanctioning Argentina for inaccurate inflation data, The Associated Press checked prices in Buenos Aires, and couldn't find a can of soda for less than 8 pesos.
Even a ham and cheese sandwich cost 13 pesos at a downtown kiosk. That's without lettuce or tomato. Food purchased at supermarkets is more economical of course, but even there, 6 pesos bought just one can of green peas, or a pound of raw rice — hardly enough for a complete and healthy diet.
The official inflation rate is based in large part on what the national statistics service says is the total cost of 27 items in the basic food basket — a measure of the bare minimum that an extremely poor person needs to consume.
Monday's update said that monthly basket for a family of four cost 719 pesos in December. That works out to 5.99 pesos per day, per person.
The IMF has lost patience with these numbers after urging Argentina for years to improve this consumer price index, which lost credibility in 2007 after political appointees replaced career statisticians.
The new methodology, which has kept official yearly inflation in the range of 10 per cent ever since, has not been fully explained, even as consumers complain about soaring costs of beef and other staples.
IMF experts and Argentine economists have spent months working privately with government officials to recommend very detailed ways to get accurate numbers again, but the government has yet to adopt them.
The IMF is now on the 12th step of a 15-point process for flagging Argentina with what IMF Director Christine Lagarde called "the red card" for countries that don't follow the rules.
Today, she announced that a board meeting will be held February 1 to consider whether to censure Argentina and eventually suspend its voting rights and membership in the world body.
Even close government allies have given up defending the official statistics service, known as INDEC, which announced Monday that Argentina's annual inflation was just 10.8 per cent in 2012.
Private economists have estimated that Argentina's inflation was actually 26 per cent or more, making it the worst in all of Latin America.
A key indicator: Unions that have been key to President Cristina Fernandez's hold on power are pushing for pay raises of 25 per cent or more this year, despite a government-announced ceiling of 20 per cent.
The low official inflation numbers have historically enabled the government to keep pay raises and consumer prices from going even higher.
And by masking what economists say is the true size of economic growth, the government also has shaved billions from the payments it makes on GDP-linked bonds.
Source: The Gleaner/Power 106 News
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Yahoo Food- August 28, 2014
It turns out that the consensus on ketchup is far from clear. Here’s what we learned: A lot of you really hate it. It may be the second-most popular condiment in America (behind mayonnaise), but ketchup is particularly loathed by some.
Kids think, “Why the question? Why all the heat?
It’s the only vegetable I’ll eat.”
The Wall Street Journal- August 23-24 2014
Witness the oversize watch trend popular throughout the past decade… Luckily for fans of the refined, the pendulum has swung back.
Big bulky watches; no longer prime.
Say fashion mavens, “Go small. It’s time.”
The Wall Street Journal – August 23-24 2014
Active fund management is outmoded, and a lot of stock pickers are going to have to find something else to do for a living…”The money game of outperformance after fees, is for clients no longer a game worth playing.”
They offer no guarantees,
(Except for commissions and fees.)
The Wall Street Journal August 23, 2014
Mr. DeNoor (Michigan GM dealer) took the unusual step of hiring a full-time “recall concierge” to take care of customers calls and coordinate repairs, as an onslaught of service requests rolled in this summer.
For the anxious, the angry, the nervous,
“Mr. Recall” is there – at your service.
The Wall Street Journal- August 21, 2014
Why work out when you can buy the clothes and look like you did?. The rate of growth in the US retail athletic apparel market is surging, even as Americans’ rate of participating in most sports is in decline.
In ancient times, you’d cinch-in your toga,
Today, you shop for the pants marked “Yoga.”


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Branding Brand Obtains $7.5 M From Insight Venture Partners, Others (Daily Deal Media)
Mobile commerce platform, Branding Brand, has obtained $7.5 million from outside investors for the first time. The platform, which is used by Costco, Ralph Lauren, American Eagle Outfitters, and Sephora among others, has obtained funds from Insight Venture Partners, CrunchFund, and Eastern Advisors. The business will use the fresh funds to develop technology, acquire more customers, and as operating expenses.
Branding Brand was founded in 2008 by three Carnegie Mellon University alumni and launched its platform in 2009. It helps brands extend their reach seamlessly to the smart phone and tablet space from the in-store experience. It is one of the largest m-commerce service providers and has increased employee count from 10 to 100 in two years.


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Leighton, the former Asda chief executive, who also has roles in the boardrooms of BSkyB and BHS, is considering several proposals that would allow him to take advantage of the expected bloodbath on British high streets this Christmas. Although the plans have yet to be finalised, Leighton has held extensive discussions with Jacobs, the Holiday Autos founder, who sold the company to Lastminute.com in 2003.
The business would involve a flotation on the Alternative Investment Market next year to fund the acquisition of underperforming companies with growth potential.
Leighton and Jacobs both declined to comment.
Underlining the tough environment facing the retail sector, MFI, the bathrooms and kitchens chain, has called in the corporate restructuring consultancy Alix Partners to improve the operating performance in its…


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Countries in India, Africa and South America are among the best value for British travellers wanting a new holiday experience, new figures show.
Research from travel money specialist Moneycorp and travel advice website gapyear.com compared destinations on the strength of sterling against local currencies.
Brazil, India, Nepal and South Africa were found to offer the best value for money, with the pound having risen against those currencies by anywhere between 18% and 26% over the past year.
Moneycorp currency expert Olann Kerrison commented: "There has been a great deal of fluctuation in the currency markets over the past 12 months and in countries like Brazil, India and South Africa, the pound has strengthened significantly.
"The strength of the pound is great news for gappers heading off on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. However, by the time they reach some of these countries, the economic landscape might have changed and their pound might not stretch quite as far."
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Ubisoft will release a title update for the PS4 version of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag to increase its native resolution to 1080p.
Out of the box, the game runs at a native resolution of 900p, admitted the firm, but patch due to be deployed "shortly after release" will up that output to full HD 1080p.
According to Ubisoft, you won't even notice. "If it [was] running at 720p vs 1080p, you're going to notice the difference, by far," said associate producer Sylvain Trottier.
"But if it's set at a resolution that's very close, where most of the pixels are already there in internal processing, most people won't see any difference," he went on to suggest.
Ubisoft explains that it shipped the game running at 900p to ensure a 30 frames-per-second refresh rate at launch.
"Finishing the game at 900p gave the development team the extra room in terms of the GPU and CPU usage to ensure the framerate never dips below 30 frames per second," explained Ubi.
"The team then used the time between the ship date and the release to focus on a title update that could deliver native 1080p resolution on the PS4."
The patch will also add "a brand-new anti-aliasing technique", which helps reduce the appearance of jagged edges on-screen.
"This anti-aliasing technique," the firm added, "will be available for both PS4 and Xbox One." There was no mention of the Xbox One version's native resolution output.
Activision and developer Infinity Ward has deploy a similar patch for Call of Duty: Ghosts on PS4 at launch, increasing the native output of its single-player campaign from 720p to 1080p.
In CVG's Assassin's Creed IV review, we said, "Much like the first Assassin's Creed, Black Flag isn't perfect. But the treasure trove of memorable experiences on offer here put all but the very best open worlds to shame."


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There’s a new standard in the professional AV space – one that may finally eliminate the need to list protocols as a factor for determining the equipment to use in an AV system. At its annual meeting in 2004, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) launched an Ethernet study group for AV streaming, which became the Audio Video Bridging (AVB) Task Group. The AVB Task Group now serves four industries – consumer electronics, automotive, industrial control, and professional AV. In 2012, this group was renamed the Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) Task Force to reflect a more accurate and inclusive focus for the expanded scope of work.
TSN is becoming an important fixture of the pro AV industry, with key companies like Intel, Cisco, General Electric, and National Instruments turning to TSN to enable the emerging technology that will be part of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is projected to be the “next big thing” because, like the internet, it crosses nearly every industry. As evidence of the growing recognition of TSN among major industry players, Kevin Stanton of Intel and Gary Stuebing of Cisco now serve on the board of the directors for the AVnu Alliance.
In an article [link: http://tinyurl.com/otrzktb] on AVB’s coming of age, written while attending the TSNA Conference, Lindsey Adler of AV Network states, “For the past few years, my head has spun with a consistent battling chorus of ‘AVB is dead!’ and ‘Long live AVB,’ or ‘This is the year for AVB to prove its worth! Or else it’s dead!’ I’m pleased to report that the next generation of AV networking standards are alive and well, and very much here to stay. Sure, plenty of you naysayers still exist out there, but fresh off the AVnu Alliance’s debut conference on Time Sensitive Networks and Applications (TSNA), I can attest to the sold out, standing room only attendance of bright eyed and engaged participants eager to learn the technical nuances, applications, and deployment tricks of time sensitive networks.”
The Case for TSN
Technology-based marketplaces tend to evolve via different sets of standards. Remember the VHS vs. Betamax format war? Did you experience déjà vu with the debate over Blu-ray and HD DVD? The AV industry stands at a similar crossroads. Like these formats, Ethernet (as opposed to token ring) emerged as a standard and is widely accepted as the means for connecting digital devices. However, AV systems no longer automatically reside on separate networks, but are increasingly incorporated into comprehensive digital media systems. This integration of digital systems calls for the industry to move beyond trying to integrate multiple protocols; we need a set of standards that fit digital devices together naturally, regardless of the data packets they stream.
The ability to ensure time-arrival in current Ethernet technology is hampered by two issues: speed and the order in which data packets are received. TSN addresses technology’s emerging data requirements by providing synchronized, deterministic delivery of data packets in a time sensitive (or low latency) manner. These characteristics are viewed as key to the imminent IoT revolution and meeting the transmission needs of multiple industries. As an open standard, TSN also removes commercial ownership from the development process, leveling the playing field and allowing anyone access to the standards and the opportunity to develop new products that follow those standards. Open standards often drive the development and adoption of open standards-based products.
By increasing interdependence between system solutions, IoT will transcend how technology interacts, by reshaping markets and creating new products while redefining the processes that power today’s systems and products. According to Rick Merritt of EE Times [link: http://tinyurl.com/nfbdygf], “A new generation of chips and software in the works promises to slash Ethernet latencies down to single-digit microseconds, opening up a wide range of uses in cars, factory-floor robots, power plants and even in the home.”
TSN will expand what is possible within AV, enabling the precise management, control, and delivery of media across an integrated network. Through the adoption of the TSN protocols, system designers and engineers will be able to provide time-critical (deterministic) and guaranteed-time-arrival (synchronized) for data transmissions – an essential requirement for AV systems that stream different content to various locations at both ad hoc and predetermined times.
The most immediate impact, and one the AV industry references regularly, will be the need for TSN switches. Companies like Cisco have already expressed their interest in this new hardware – a promising indicator that additional switches may become available in the near future. The next impact is that TSN adopters will require smaller endpoints, which will bring lower-cost endpoints to the AV industry at a faster pace than traditionally seen. As TSN evolves, the AV marketplace can look forward to the possibility of completely new protocol-based technologies that leverage benefits such as expanded channel count or the continued reduction of latency.
As TSN develops, the protocol will likely undergo several revisions before it becomes the de facto standard. During this time, the AV industry can anticipate an increase in the acceptance of networked media systems within IT departments, leading to greater collaboration between the two disciplines. To prepare for this, AV integrators should adopt a change-based approach to their workflows since industry transformations will continue to occur rapidly as IoT developments advance. AV specialists – whether integrators or consultants – need to think outside the traditional AV universe, learn about what’s happening in other technology-based industries, and be open to an innovation-first philosophy that could streamline and unify the AV industry and the IT sector.
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Holly Tennant Billy landed on her feet. In fact, for any pink-slipped LivingSocial Inc. employee, she might embody the best possible outcome.
Tennant Billy joined the D.C. daily deals company about two years ago as vice president of business development, when it operated in roughly 80 markets and had only one office in the District. She was let go in July alongside merchant solutions chief Dickson Chu and about 10 others — a round of cuts that would serve as a prelude to the mass layoffs LivingSocial carried out last week.
And had she not found a home at McLean-based TroopSwap Inc., Tennant Billy said she “probably would have left the area.” The venture-backed startup, which lets retailers verify military credentials for online discounts, snapped up the former AOL executive last month to head business development.
As LivingSocial struggles to find its financial footing, its contraction in D.C. has spawned two distinct, but related, phenomena. First, tech startups have been readily snapping up ex-LivingSocial employees in recent months — both those laid off and those who left the deals company on their own terms. The list of Washington-area startups that have recently added at least one former LivingSocialer to their payrolls includes Venga, Social Tables, Markerly, Audax Health Solutions, EverFi, American Honors, and, of course, TroopSwap.
“That’s the new requirement” for D.C. startups, said Dan Berger, CEO of D.C.-based event planning software startup Social Tables, which has hired former LivingSocial marketing associate Laura Simmons. “The Valley’s got to have a Googler, and we’ve got to have a LivingSocialer.”
Second, not all of those laid off employees are going to have the same luck as Tennant Billy. The pace of hiring is far outstripped by the number of LivingSocial resumes flooding the D.C. startup market following the most recent round of layoffs. Startups widely report a growing influx of cold calls and emails from the recently let-go, one they couldn’t possibly accommodate even if the applicants all matched the required mentality and skill-set.
LivingSocial has long outgrown the designation of “startup,” and jumping to a tiny new company would represent a major readjustment for many — though not all — of the thousands of employees at LivingSocial. True startups offer the promise of stingy pay, long and intense hours and perpetual job insecurity. At the early stages, every employee is under the founder’s microscope.
A mismatch of skills could also hinder more LivingSocialers entering the tech startup workforce. Selling software to another business is different than selling coupons to merchants and consumers.
Markerly, founded by former LivingSocial marketing consultant Sarah Ware, recently recruited Todd Schweber to the widget-maker as director of business development. But Ware, who said she’s contacted daily by ex-LivingSocial employees looking for a job, doesn’t plan on any more immediate hiring. She hired Schweber, whom she knew from her time at LivingSocial, based off his business development and finance experience, as well as his early support for Markerly.
✒LivingSocial in March launched an ambitious takeout and delivery service — a la Seamless.com and GrubHub — to replace its faltering Instant deals, which was quietly scuttled. LivingSocial Takeout & Delivery now looks at risk of sharing the same fate as its predecessor.
Obscured in the sea of last week’s bad news for the D.C. deals company was the consolidation of its online ordering program. Some of the roughly 400 layoffs LivingSocial carried out Nov. 29 were in Takeout & Delivery, according to spokesman Andrew Weinstein. He said the service would shift its focus to a smaller number of markets than the 20 it now serves.
LivingSocial, to its credit, has been aggressive about launching new services that would lessen its dependence on the teetering daily deal model. But judging from the company’s action, its attempt to shoehorn itself into a highly competitive market with Takeout & Delivery has not, so far, yielded much of a return.
That news is particularly alarming. Every new service LivingSocial has launched has been — at least partly — an attempt to inoculate itself against a daily deal collapse.
✒Maryland’s TEDCO and the Chesapeake Crescent Initiative are raising a $50 million fund that would seed startups built off of university and government technology.
The Cheseapeake Regional Innovation Fund will be run by the state-funded TEDCO (short for Maryland Technology Development Corp.), with its initial investments slated for next year.


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Food Corruption Media Articles
Below are key excerpts of revealing news articles on food system corruption from reliable news media sources. If any link fails to function, a paywall blocks full access, or the article is no longer available, try these digital tools.
For further exploration, delve into our comprehensive Health and Food Corruption Information Center.
It started with a simple message on Facebook on April 29. George Ahearn had heard about farmers in Eastern Washington who were giving away potatoes and onions and wanted to know if someone had a truck he could borrow to haul the discarded crops to Western Washington food banks. The response was immediate and dramatic. A convoy of four trucks, including two with trailers, made the trip east, helping provide quite a bounty for local food banks. We brought back 9.36 tons when my original goal was 2,000 pounds (one ton), Aheard said. The effort didnt end there. EastWest Food Rescue is now a registered nonprofit organization, having delivered more than 2.4 million pounds of crops to more than 160 food banks. Not only is it helping with food security, but the organization is paying the farmers, who saw the market for some of their crops vanish during the coronavirus pandemic. The whole thing started because of COVID, said Nancy Balin, who answered Ahearns initial request and is now one of three directors of the program. They immediately lost all the restaurant contracts they had for these restaurant-quality potatoes and onions. Meanwhile, unemployment was spiking everywhere, along with the need for food. People who had never needed food before needed food banks, and these farmers have potatoes that they need to get rid of, Balin said. The goal now is 10 million pounds of food rescued, which Balin said will take $250,000 in donations in addition to hundreds of volunteer hours.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.
Bayer will pay more than $10 billion to resolve thousands of lawsuits regarding claims that its Roundup herbicide causes cancer, the company announced. Monsanto, bought by Bayer in 2018, lost a lawsuit that same year brought by a school groundskeeper who claimed its weedkiller had caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since then, thousands of U.S. lawsuits have been filed against the company. The settlement, however, does not contain an admission of wrongdoing or liability. Bayer will pay $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to settle existing lawsuits and then another $1.25 billion that will cover any potential litigation in the future. Lawsuits allege that Monsanto ignored warnings that its herbicide contained potentially cancer causing chemicals, then concealed the threat to consumers. A jury awarded California groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson nearly $290 million in damages in August 2018 after they found Monsanto failed to warn Johnson and other consumers about the risks posed by its weed-killing products. A judge upheld the decision upon appeal, but lowered the damages to $78 million due to what she considered an overreach in punitive damages decided by the jury. And last year, a California jury awarded a husband and wife more than $2 billion in damages in a suit that claimed Roundup caused their illness. German pharmaceuticals and chemical giant Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 just months before Johnson won his suit against the company. Bayer eliminated the Monsanto name, but maintained the brands.
Note: The negative health impacts of Roundup are well known. Yet the EPA continues to use industry studies to declare Roundup safe while ignoring independent scientists. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on health from reliable major media sources.
As scientists specializing in ecology and the environment, were studying how milk an essential yet suffering industry has been affected by COVID-19. We have documented one solution to the milk distribution crisis: innovative small farmers of New Jersey. Dairy producers are dumping thousands of gallons of milk every day. In Wisconsin, 50% of the states dairy products have nowhere to go while typical buyers such as schools and restaurants remain shut down and unable to purchase milk and cheese. In Pennsylvania, where schools buy up to 40% of dairy sales by volume, the pandemic has beleaguered an already-stressed industry that lost 470 farms in 2019. In New Jersey, farms are the fourth-smallest in the United States, averaging 76 acres. The Garden States dairy sector is particularly small, comprising only 50 farms and ranking 44th of 50 states in total milk production. But despite their small operations, we see New Jerseys local entrepreneurial farmers as models of a game-changing strategy. Rather than selling their milk to large dairy processing companies, these vertically structured local farms raise cows, process milk and other foods and sell them directly to consumers at farm-operated markets and restaurants. Unsold items return to farms as feed or fertilizer. This system is highly efficient, even during the current pandemic, because farmers and their customers represent the entire supply chain. These farmers dont operate alone. They band together in cooperatives, sharing resources for the benefit of all.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.
By 11 a.m. on a Wednesday in Antioch, California, hundreds of cars are lined up at the Palabra de Dios Community Church. The cars fill the churchs ample parking lot and snake up the neighboring service street ... waiting for food. Most weekdays since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a box truck delivers groceries here: bags of fresh kale, lettuce, and radishes; boxes of apples, limes, and tomatoes; canned beans, pastas, and gallons and gallons of milk and juice. As volunteers from the church unload the truck, others quickly sort the food into single-family grocery boxes to put into each car. Our intention here is to provide food to those who truly need it, says Ruben Herrera, pastor of Palabra de Dios. Herrera and his congregation dont regularly operate a food drive out of the parking lot of their church, but for many churches, nonprofits, and social service providers, the COVID-19 crisis has prompted a rapid reconfiguration of resources and efforts to address the needs of their communities. The truckload of food comes from White Pony Express, a nonprofit aimed at alleviating hunger in Contra Costa County. Over the past six years, the staff members at White Pony Express have built and coordinated a growing food redistribution network, in which they rescue food with approaching sell-by dates from grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers markets, and redistribute that food to the countys low-income residents via food pantries, schools, and community centers.
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The coronavirus pandemic has brought hunger to millions of people around the world. National lockdowns and social distancing measures are drying up work and incomes, and are likely to disrupt agricultural production and supply routes leaving millions to worry how they will get enough to eat. Already, 135 million people had been facing acute food shortages, but now with the pandemic, 130 million more could go hungry in 2020, said Arif Husain, chief economist at the World Food Program, a United Nations agency. Altogether, an estimated 265 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by years end. Weve never seen anything like this before, Mr. Husain said. It wasnt a pretty picture to begin with, but this makes it truly unprecedented and uncharted territory. This hunger crisis, experts say, is global and caused by a multitude of factors linked to the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing interruption of the economic order: the sudden loss in income for countless millions who were already living hand-to-mouth; the collapse in oil prices; widespread shortages of hard currency from tourism drying up; overseas workers not having earnings to send home; and ongoing problems like climate change, violence ... and humanitarian disasters. The curfews and restrictions on movement are already devastating the meager incomes of displaced people. The effects of the restrictions may cause more suffering than the disease itself, said Kurt Tjossem ... at the International Rescue Committee.
Farmers around the country have been forced to dump milk and waste fresh produce as schools, restaurants and other institutions remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In response, supermarket chain Publix launched a new initiative Wednesday to help struggling farmers and get the food to Americans who need it most. The company's press release said it will purchase fresh produce and milk from farmers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and donate the goods directly to Feeding America food banks that are in its "operating area." During the first week of the initiative alone, some 150,000 pounds of produce and 43,500 gallons of milk is expected to be donated, the company said. "As a food retailer, we have the unique opportunity to bridge the gap between the needs of families and farmers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic," said Todd Jones, Publix CEO. "In addition to providing much needed produce and milk to food banks, this initiative provides financial support to farmers during this challenging time." In addition to the new initiative, Publix Super Markets Charities recently made donations which totaled $2 million to help Feeding America's member food banks amid the crisis. Feeding America, which is the largest hunger-relief organization in the U.S., said that before the coronavirus crisis there were 37 million people in the nation who did not have enough food. The number is now expected to increase by an additional 17 million.
In Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into lagoons and manure pits. An Idaho farmer has dug huge ditches to bury 1 million pounds of onions. And in South Florida, a region that supplies much of the Eastern half of the United States with produce, tractors are crisscrossing bean and cabbage fields, plowing perfectly ripe vegetables back into the soil. Many of the nations largest farms ... are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food that they can no longer sell. The closing of restaurants, hotels and schools has left some farmers with no buyers for more than half their crops. And even as retailers see spikes in food sales to Americans who are now eating nearly every meal at home, the increases are not enough to absorb all of the perishable food that was planted weeks ago and intended for schools and businesses. The amount of waste is staggering. The nations largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America, estimates that farmers are dumping as many as 3.7 million gallons of milk each day. A single chicken processor is smashing 750,000 unhatched eggs every week. Many farmers say they have donated part of the surplus to food banks. But there is only so much perishable food that charities ... can absorb. And the costs of harvesting, processing and then transporting produce and milk to food banks or other areas of need would put further financial strain on farms that have seen half their paying customers disappear.
In recent days, top U.S. government officials have moved to assure Americans that they won't lack for food, despite the coronavirus. In fact, the pandemic has caused entirely different problems: a spike in the number of people who can't afford groceries and a glut of food where it's not needed. Dairy farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Georgia have been forced to dump thousands of gallons of milk that no one will buy. In Florida, vegetable growers are abandoning harvest-ready fields of tomatoes, yellow squash and cucumbers for the same reason. "We cannot pick the produce if we cannot sell it, because we cannot afford the payroll every week," says Kim Jamerson, a vegetable grower. Those crops will be plowed back into the ground. The situation is especially dire for Florida's tomato growers, who sell 80% of their production to restaurants and other food service companies, rather than to supermarkets. Meanwhile, food banks and pantries are having trouble supplying enough food to people who need it, including millions of children who no longer are getting free meals at school and people who've lost jobs in recent weeks. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, a network of food banks and charitable meals programs, says that these programs normally receive large donations of unsold food from retail stores. In recent weeks, though, as retailers struggled to keep their shelves stocked, "we're seeing as much as a 35% reduction in that donation stream from retail," Babineaux-Fontenot says.
A Missouri jurys $265 million award to peach grower Bill Bader in his lawsuit against herbicide providers Bayer and BASF has raised the stakes for the two companies as at least 140 similar cases head to U.S. courts. A jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, handed Bader, the states largest peach farmer, $15 million in actual and $250 million in punitive damages. He sued the companies saying his 1,000-acre orchard was irreparably harmed by herbicide that they produce, which drifted onto its trees from nearby farms. The three-week trial was the first case in the United States to rule on the use of dicamba-based herbicides alleged to have damaged tens of thousands of acres of U.S. cropland. The herbicide can become a vapor and drift for miles when used in certain weather, farmers have claimed. Bayer faces separate multi-billion-dollar litigation over the Roundup weedkiller made by Monsanto, the U.S. firm it took over for $63 billion in 2018. Monsanto made Roundup and dicamba, and Bayer is being sued over both products. Bader Farms, in southern Missouri near the Arkansas border, said it lost many trees when the herbicide containing dicamba was used on nearby soybean and cotton farms and drifted onto its property. The farm said repeated dicamba exposure beginning in 2015 killed or weakened the fruit trees. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposed restrictions on the use of dicamba in November 2018 over concerns about potential damage to nearby crops.
In 2013, the European Union called for a temporary suspension of the most commonly used neonicotinoid-based products on flowering plants, citing the danger posed to bees — an effort that resulted in a permanent ban in 2018. In the U.S., however, industry dug in, seeking not only to discredit the research but to cast pesticide companies as a solution to the problem. Lobbying documents and emails ... show a sophisticated effort over the last decade by the pesticide industry to obstruct any effort to restrict the use of neonicotinoids. Bayer and Syngenta, the largest manufacturers of neonics, and Monsanto, one of the leading producers of seeds pretreated with neonics, cultivated ties with prominent academics ... and other scientists who had once called for a greater focus on the threat posed by pesticides. A study published in peer-reviewed journal PLOS One found that the American landscape has become 48 times more toxic to insects since the 1990s, a shift largely fueled by the rising application of neonics. “Generally, we see the U.S. waiting longer than the EU to take action on a variety of pesticides and other chemicals,” said [Willa] Childress ... with Pesticide Action Network North America. Part of the divergence, Childress continued, stems from a regulatory system in the U.S. that assumes chemical products are generally safe until proven hazardous. In contrast, the EU tends to use the “precautionary principle,” removing products that may cause harm.
Note: Merchants of Poison: How Monsanto Sold the World on a Toxic Pesticide is a recent and comprehensive analysis of documents released in litigation against Monsanto and their dangerous use of glyphosate. These revealing documents expose years of pesticide industry disinformation, attacks on scientists and journalists, and Monsanto’s deep influence on US regulatory agencies to manipulate science and prioritize profits over public health. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on corruption in science and in the food system from reliable major media sources.
Nearly half of the fish caught worldwide are from stocks that are scientifically monitored and, on average, are increasing in abundance. Effective management appears to be the main reason these stocks are at sustainable levels or successfully rebuilding. That is the main finding of an international project led by the University of Washington to compile and analyze data from fisheries around the world. The results were published Jan. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. There is a narrative that fish stocks are declining around the world, that fisheries management is failing and we need new solutions and its totally wrong, said lead author Ray Hilborn. Fish stocks are ... increasing in many places, and we already know how to solve problems through effective fisheries management. The teams database includes information on nearly half of the worlds fish catch, up from about 20% represented in the last compilation in 2009. Still, most of the fish stocks in South Asia and Southeast Asia do not have scientific estimates of health and status available. Fisheries in India, Indonesia and China alone represent 30% to 40% of the worlds fish catch that is essentially unassessed. This analysis found that more intense management led to healthy or improving fish stocks, while little to no management led to overfishing and poor stock status.
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Through a porthole in a metal tank, I could see a yellow froth churning. Its a primordial soup of bacteria, taken from the soil and multiplied in the laboratory, using hydrogen extracted from water as its energy source. When the froth was siphoned through a tangle of pipes and squirted on to heated rollers, it turned into a rich yellow flour. This flour is not yet licensed for sale. But the scientists, working for a company called Solar Foods, were allowed to give me some while filming our documentary Apocalypse Cow. Such flours are likely soon to become the feedstock for almost everything. In their raw state, they can replace the fillers now used in thousands of food products. When the bacteria are modified they will create the specific proteins needed for lab-grown meat, milk and eggs. The carbohydrates that remain when proteins and fats have been extracted could replace everything from pasta flour to potato crisps. Research by the thinktank RethinkX suggests that proteins from precision fermentation will be around 10 times cheaper than animal protein by 2035. The result, it says, will be the near-complete collapse of the livestock industry. The new food economy will replace an extravagantly inefficient system that requires enormous quantities of inputs and produces huge amounts of waste with one that is precise, targeted, and tractable. Using tiny areas of land, with a massively reduced requirement for water and nutrients, it presents the greatest opportunity for environmental restoration in human history.
Note: The above article was written by George Monbiot. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on food system corruption from reliable major media sources.
More than 12 million pounds of medically important antibiotics sold in this country are not for use in humans; they're for livestock. And the antibiotics are driving the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in the animals that can get passed on to us through food. Yet it's almost impossible to get on the farms to conduct inspections and stop infection outbreaks from spreading, even for public health officials. In 2015, Washington state epidemiologist Scott Lindquist investigated an outbreak of antibiotic resistant salmonella tied to roaster pigs. The salmonella was resistant to antibiotics. Lindquist traced the cause of the outbreak to a slaughterhouse. "We come in and we find the bacteria, essentially everywhere," [said Lindquist]. "So I want to go back to the farms and I wanna sample the pigs at the farm." But to his surprise, Lindquist, who was conducting the investigation, was flatly turned down. Thwarted, he says, by the National Pork Producers Council, the lead lobbying group for the $23 billion pork industry. They sent Lindquist a letter denying him access to the farms. Even federal inspectors have trouble getting on farms. They are not allowed on a farm to look for bacteria that make people sick without the farmer's permission. Farmers started using antibiotics decades ago ... to make animals grow faster with less food. In 2017, the Food and Drug Administration told farmers to stop using antibiotics in animals for growth purposes, but ... they are permitted to use them for disease prevention, and there are no reporting requirements.
According to FDA estimates, the United States wastes 30 to 40% of its food. That's hard to swallow when you consider that one in 10 US households faced food insecurity in 2018. That means roughly 14 million families are struggling to put meals on the table while approximately 30 million tons of food are trashed. For 29 years Forgotten Harvest, a nonprofit in Detroit, has been rescuing food destined for landfills and redirecting it to the hungry. Forgotten Harvest CEO Kirk Mayes says it's taken that long to develop the logistics for his program, which now rescues and delivers 130,000 pounds of food a day. "This operation is set up so that our fleet of about 27 trucks and our drivers can leave our warehouse in the morning and go to about 12 to 14 different stops ... for our donations." Mayes says. Drivers collect food from local bakers and butchers and national chains, he says. "And then these drivers redistribute the food to three to four community partners on a daily basis." A rotating army of 16,000 volunteers makes this daily event happen. "At our warehouse, our volunteers are working with commodities that are coming off of our farm and from other commodity partners like the food manufacturers and other farms and donations," Mayes says. "All this (food) is inspected, sorted and set to go out." The result? Last year Forgotten Harvest redistributed 41 million pounds of food, Mayes says. That's 41 million pounds that filled stomachs instead of landfills.
One of the most powerful Big Food lobbyists wants to change its image. The Grocery Manufacturers Association ... is planning to change its name to the Consumer Brands Association in 2020, a sign the group is trying to distance itself from past troubles. In the past two years, food companies like Campbell, Kraft Heinz, Nestle, Hershey and Unilever have left the GMA, amid disputes. Among the issues that were fiercely debated were how and when to disclose the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The organization says each of the former members left for individual reasons, but the common thread was a failure by the organization to adapt as consumer sentiments and trends were evolving. Gone are the days when we could have one face to policymakers and a different one to consumers, said GMA President and CEO Geoff Freeman. ″Policymakers have little to no influence on the decisions consumers make, he said. The organizations agenda is based on the industrys realization that it must react to consumers demands, rather than fight them, Freeman said. The new name more clearly identifies the companies in its membership: branded names in food, beverage, personal care and household products. GMA wants to fix what it believes is a broken system to help address the countrys recycling crisis. The U.S. does not have uniform recycling laws, which has led to contamination of shipments meant for recycling. Exacerbating this issue, China ... has begun to refuse Americas garbage.
Note: In 2016, the Grocery Manufacturers Association was forced to pay $18 million in damages for violating Washington State law in its opposition to a GMO labeling initiative. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on food system corruption from reliable major media sources.
About a half a dozen journalists were in a northern California courtroom to cover a third lawsuit alleging that Monsantos pesticide glyphosate causes cancer. [Sylvie] Barak told others that she was a freelancer for the BBC. When journalists searched the internet for Barak, they noticed that her LinkedIn account said she worked for FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm that Monsanto and Bayer, Monsantos parent company, had engaged for consulting. Monsanto has also previously employed shadowy networks of consultants, PR firms, and front groups to spy on and influence reporters. And all of it appears to be part of a pattern at the company of using a variety of tactics to intimidate, mislead and discredit journalists and critics. In the latest example of Monsantos efforts to track journalists, The Guardian reported in August on internal documents from the companys fusion center, which worked to discredit reporters and nonprofits via third-party actors. In the California trial, the reporter who first identified Barak as an FTI plant said she ... saw an uptick in Monsantos industry partners contacting her as she covered the trial. A guy named Jay Byrne ... contacted her on social media to discuss how GMO criticism was part of a Russian influence campaign; when she Googled Byrne, she learned he is Monsantos former director of communications. In a January deposition, a Monsanto representative said that in 2016 the company spent around $16 or 17 million on activities to defend glyphosate.
Note: Major lawsuits are now unfolding over Monsanto's lies to regulators and the public on the dangers of glyphosate. Yet the EPA continues to use industry studies to declare Roundup safe while ignoring independent scientists. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on corporate corruption from reliable major media sources.
When the Indian government bowed to powerful food companies last year and postponed its decision to put red warning labels on unhealthy packaged food, officials also sought to placate critics of the delay by creating an expert panel to review the proposed labeling system, which would have gone far beyond what other countries have done in the battle to combat soaring obesity rates. But the man chosen to head the three-person committee, Dr. Boindala Sesikeran, a veteran nutritionist and former adviser to Nestle, only further enraged health advocates. Thats because Dr. Sesikeran is a trustee of the International Life Sciences Institute, an American nonprofit with an innocuous sounding name that has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies around the world. Created four decades ago by a top Coca-Cola executive, the institute now has branches in 17 countries. It is almost entirely funded by Goliaths of the agribusiness, food and pharmaceutical industries. The organization, which championed tobacco interests during the 1980s and 1990s in Europe and the United States, has more recently expanded its activities in Asia and Latin America, regions that provide a growing share of food company profits. It has been especially active in China, India and Brazil, the worlds first, second and sixth most populous nations. In addition to its far-flung offices, ILSI runs a research foundation and an institute focused on health and environmental issues that is largely funded by the chemical industry.
Note: Check out a great article on how lobby groups like this cause the media to become industry lapdogs. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on food system corruption from reliable major media sources.
In a direct challenge to California regulators and Bay Area environmentalists, the Trump administration Thursday ordered companies to ignore state requirements that businesses warn customers if their products contain glyphosate, a weed killer that has been linked to cancer. The decision flies in the face of three California court rulings against Monsanto, which markets the chemical as Roundup. The agricultural giant faces more than 13,000 suits nationwide by users of Roundup, the worlds best-selling herbicide. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it would no longer approve labels saying glyphosate is known to cause cancer. The state requires companies to warn customers about chemicals known to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. Glyphosate was classified as a probable human carcinogen in 2015 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization. Lawyers for sick clients who were awarded tens of millions of dollars after suing Monsanto introduced evidence that glyphosate can cause genetic damage that leads to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. They claimed Monsanto ignored that information and published information ghost written by staffers denying the toxicity of the chemical. Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith said there was clear evidence that Monsanto, after learning of the dangers, made efforts to impede, discourage or distort scientific inquiry by regulators.
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Monsanto operated a fusion center to monitor and discredit journalists and activists, and targeted a reporter who wrote a critical book on the company, documents reveal. The records reviewed by the Guardian show Monsanto adopted a multi-pronged strategy to target Carey Gillam, a Reuters journalist who investigated the companys weedkiller and its links to cancer. Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, also monitored a not-for-profit food research organization through its intelligence fusion center, a term that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies use for operations focused on surveillance and terrorism. The documents, mostly from 2015 to 2017, were disclosed as part of an ongoing court battle on the health hazards of the companys Roundup weedkiller. Monsanto planned a series of actions to attack a book authored by Gillam prior to its release, including ... directing industry and farmer customers on how to post negative reviews. Monsanto paid Google to promote search results for Monsanto Glyphosate Carey Gillam that criticized her work. Monsanto fusion center officials wrote a lengthy report about singer Neil Youngs anti-Monsanto advocacy. The internal records dont offer significant detail on the activities or scope of the fusion center, but ... government fusion centers have increasingly raised privacy concerns surrounding the way law enforcement agencies collect data, surveil citizens and share information.
Americas agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago, almost entirely due to widespread use of so-called neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One. This enormous rise in toxicity matches the sharp declines in bees, butterflies, and other pollinators as well as birds, says co-author Kendra Klein. This is the second Silent Spring. Neonics are like a new DDT, except they are a thousand times more toxic to bees than DDT was, Klein says. Using a new tool that measures toxicity to honey bees, the length of time a pesticide remains toxic, and the amount used in a year, Klein and researchers from three other institutions determined that the new generation of pesticides has made agriculture far more toxic to insects. Honey bees are used as a proxy for all insects. The study found that neonics accounted for 92 percent of this increased toxicity. Neonics are not only incredibly toxic to honeybees, they can remain toxic for more than 1,000 days in the environment, said Klein. Some scientists have been warning that there is an insect apocalypse underway. A global analysis of 452 species in 2014 estimated that insect abundance had declined 45 percent over 40 years. Not only do bees, butterflies, and other insects pollinate one-third of all food crops, declining insect numbers can also have catastrophic ecological repercussions.
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